This invention relates generally to controlling devices and, more particularly, relates to a system and method for creating a controlling device such as a universal remote control.
Controlling devices are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,353 discloses a universal remote control which can be coupled via coded signals with a receiver built into various types of consumer appliances. In this manner, the universal remote control can be used to transmit a command code signal to the consumer appliances to control the operation of the consumer appliance(s) that are adapted to respond to the command code signal.
For controlling the operation of the different types of consumer appliances, a command code library is stored in the memory of the controlling device. As will be appreciated, a command code library is required since different consumer appliances and/or consumer appliances manufactured by different manufacturers typically have different coding formats by which the command codes are transmitted. Within the command code library, the command codes that are transmitted using a common coding format (i.e., commands for commanding the operations of a given type of consumer appliance of a given consumer appliance manufacturer) are grouped into a command code set.
It is also known in the art to store executable instructions in the memory of a controlling device for use in controlling the operation and features of the controlling device. By way of example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,959,751 and 6,014,092 disclose a universal remote control having executable instructions that allow a user to assign one or more command codes to a selected key. In accordance with this described feature, activation of the selected key will cause the controlling device to transmit to the consumer appliances the command code(s) that have been assigned to the selected key.
Presently, creating a controlling device is a time consuming and, therefore, costly endeavor. In this regard, creating a controlling device requires the manual selection of the command codes and programming of the executable instructions that are to be stored in the memory of the controlling device. It is also requires that the layout of the intended keyboard for the controlling device be manually created keeping in mind the proposed command code library and features to be supported by the controlling device. Manually performing these tasks suffers the disadvantage of failing to create a controlling device that adequately balances the needs of an end user against the development cost of the controlling device.
To overcome this disadvantage, the subject invention provides a system and method for creating a controlling device. The controlling device is created by a user specifying one or more operating criteria for the controlling device. By way of example, operating criteria may include the intended market for the controlling device, the intended end use of the controlling device, the types of devices the controlling device is intended to control, the functions intended to be supported within the controlling device, the size of the memory within the controlling device, and/or the processor chip within the controlling device.
From the specified criteria, the system will select executable instructions from a library of executable instructions and command code sets from a library of command code sets that are to be stored in the memory of the controlling device. In addition, the system will suggest command key/command code mappings for use within the controlling device. The user may interact with the system to modify the selected executable instructions, command code sets, and command key/command code mappings. When stored in the memory of the controlling device, the executable instructions are to be used to perform various operations and functions within the controlling device and the command codes are to be transmitted from the controlling device to command the operation of different types of controllable devices in response to activation of one or more of the command keys.